Terror at the Gates (Blood of Lilith, #1)

by Scarlett St. Clair

To the women who were told they must submit to the dominance of man.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world…

Despite his participation in this indoctrinated world, he knew religion bred hostility, especially toward women.

It was hard to explain, but I felt like he had the deepest eyes I had ever seen, yet they held absolutely nothing.

“Their judgment is fear, Lilith,” he said. “And fear is power.”

“She treats your territory like she owns it,” Cassius said when I stepped outside the holding room. “That is how Lilith treats the world,” I replied.

In Hiram, there was nothing more powerful than shame.

Sometimes the sincerity in his expression made my heart hurt, and I wondered how someone so caring could lead the kind of life he did, but I knew the answer. He was born into it.

What was the point of life without the promise of eternal paradise? But that was the great lie, wasn’t it? Life was life. It was as meaningful as I made it.

My mother would have called it divine justice. I could hear her saying it in that cool, condescending tone. Even dead, her doctrine haunted me, and my anger roared to life.

They will call her a demon, but I watched her transform, and I will call her goddess.